Language Archives - Page 40 of 42

Ten in the bed game

08/07/2010 by Cathy James 6 Comments

You can make maths much more fun if you mix in some songs and imaginary play. Today we’ve been counting backwards and singing ‘Ten in the Bed’.

First we took a cardboard box and used some fabric scraps to make a bedsheet, pillows and blanket.

Then we made 10 little people and numbered them 1 to 10. With a bit of a squash and a squeeze they all fitted in.

Then it was time for some singing – and lots of giggling as Little rolled her people out of bed. We’ve done an alternative version of this using our sofa as a bed and Big’s favourite teddies to make up the numbers. It’s very funny when you’re 3 to make your teds whizz out of bed!

A great book choice to go with this is Ten in the Bed by Penny Dale, which has beautiful illustrations.

And just in case you don’t know the song, there’s a cute pre-school class over on You Tube waiting to sing it to you.

Helping children with emotions

27/06/2010 by Cathy James 3 Comments

Alongside learning how to read, write your own name and tie up your shoes laces, learning how to understand and deal with your emotions is an equally important part of early learning. If we hope to raise happy, reasonable and persevering children we should spend time nurturing their emotional well-being as well as counting, baking and making crafts with them.

One way we try to do this is by using books. There are lots of books which feature characters coping with lots of different emotions: happiness, sadness, nerves, fear, jealousy – and you can find a selection shown below. But how about making a book about your own child to really capture their interest and give you the perfect opportunity to talk about how they feel?

The You Tube clip above shows a book we made for Little and retells her battle with frustration and shows how bouncing back from defeat can lead to success! Why don’t you make one for your child? Sit with them as they tackle a challenge and create your own photo story.

Or how about creating a book of the many faces of your child? Put together a selection of photos showing times when they were laughing, cross, tired or giggling. Add a word to describe each photo and read it together. This will open up lots of converation about different feelings. I’m certain you’ll find kids just love reading books in which they are the central character.

Pre-school rhyming game

27/05/2010 by Cathy James 5 Comments

A quick post tonight with an fun idea for a game we’ve been playing today all about rhymes.

Understanding the different parts of our language is important for children as they develop their own speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, and one of the parts of language is of course rhyme. It’s not necessarily something which young children understand easily. Pre-schoolers often think words which start with the same sound (walk and whistle) rhyme, instead of understanding that it’s the final sound of the word which they need to listen out for (as in walk and talk).

Little is switching on to rhymes now and will sometimes stop after she’s said something and say ‘hey, that rhymes!’. We’ve also been having fun thinking of rhyme chains, starting with a word and linking lots of rhymes. (bing, ping, wing, ling, sing, jing, ding…)

Building on this, and to have some more fun, we’ve been playing a game inventing couplets along the lines of…

I don’t like Mr. Melly, he’s too smelly.

I don’t like Mrs. Porty, she’s really naughty.

At first we had to think of the describing work first (smelly) and then have Little invent the rhyming name to go with it, as she found it too hard the other way round, where she had to think of the correct, specific adjective that could match.

Of course, using ‘rude’ words really appeals to a three year old.

We don’t like Mr. Blinky, he’s too stinky.

And as for Mrs. Fooey…….!

C is for caterpillar

19/05/2010 by Cathy James 3 Comments

I love child-led learning. When I’m helping a child learn a new skill I try to put them and their interests at the centre of any activity. Little is starting to be very interested in letters and writing and I’m always looking for ways to encourage her to explore these ideas. So when she discovered this beautiful green caterpillar in the garden we used it as a springboard to play.

She was wondering where the caterpillar’s head was and we were talking about the spiral shape it had made as it curled up. We grabbed some outdoor chalks and tried to copy the shape ourselves. It’s great for children to try making all sorts of marks – not just using paper and pencil, and not straightaway trying to write letters.

Then we talked about the word caterpillar and what sound came at the beginning – which lead us on to writing a ‘c’.

And also inspired the next letter for our touchy-feely alphabet: c is for caterpillar.

This week why not get some chalks and see what shapes you can make?

Letter of the week: D is for dandelion

08/05/2010 by Cathy James 6 Comments

Following on from ‘w is for wool‘ in our touchy-feely letter of the week sensory alphabet, today we made: d is for dandelion

Our walk to school is peppered with dandelion clocks at the moment which my daughter loves to blow. Do you play ‘What’s the time Mr. Wolf?’, counting the puffs until all the seeds have gone?

We decided to see if we could get some of the seedheads home without all the seeds blowing away, to make the next letter for our alphabet – and she had to practise great self-control not to puff them all away before we got back.

I started off by drawing out a ‘d’ on yellow paper. My daughter applied the glue, practising her hand-eye co-ordination to try and stay within the lines.

And then the real fun began! She loved blowing the dandelions onto the wet glue to make her letter d.

Once our ‘d’ was dry we cut it out and stuck it on to a piece of card. It turned out great and feels very soft and fluffy.

More sensory alphabet ideas

Click through for more great sensory alphabet and language activities.

Books about boxes

29/04/2010 by Cathy James 1 Comment

More sensory alphabet ideas

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